Hawks guard Trae Young will not be an All-Star this year.
Young, who was an All-Star starter last season, had a shot to be named an All-Star reserve, selected by NBA coaches. But, Young was not on the list that was announced Tuesday night.
Although they’re hosting the game March 7 at State Farm Arena, the Hawks don’t have a player scheduled to participate in the All-Star game.
Young ranks third in the league in assists (9.5 per game) and 10th in scoring (26.9 points per game). His stats certainly put him in the conversation to be a reserve. His assist numbers are actually up from when he was announced as a starter last season (fourth with 8.6), but his scoring numbers have dipped a bit from the 29.2 points per game he was averaging, some of that because of a roughly eight-game stretch from early to mid-January when he was off his game and shooting poorly from 3-point range.
The Hawks are winning more this season, though, with Young leading the offense. They are 13-17 through their first 30 games as opposed to 6-24 last season, when they finished 20-47.
In addition to the Eastern Conference’s five starters (Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, Washington’s Bradley Beal and Brooklyn’s Kylie Irving), the reserves are: Boston’s Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, Brooklyn’s James Harden, Chicago’s Zach LaVine, New York’s Julius Randle, Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons and Orlando’s Nikola Vucevic.
The Western Conference’s five starters are: the Lakers’ LeBron James, Dallas’ Luka Doncic, Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Golden State’s Steph Curry and the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard. The reserves are: the Lakers’ Anthony Davis, the Clippers’ Paul George, Utah’s Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, Portland’s Damian Lillard, Phoenix’s Chris Paul and New Orleans’ Zion Williamson.
When voting for reserves, NBA head coaches voted for seven players in their conference (two guards, three frontcourt players and two more players of any position), per the league, and they were not allowed to vote for players on their own team.
